A/N:: Thanks for the reviews again. ;D Sorry I didn't specify the song at the bottom of the chapter. It was 'Shadow' by Britney Spears. It's on her new CD [In the Zone] which is AWESOME. I recommend going out and getting it if you like Britney. Anyway, the song in this chapter [at the bottom] is, of course, Sk8er Boi. It's by Avril Lavigne, and her CD [Let Go] is great, too. So buy that one, too!! LOL. ;P Well, on to the chapter. P.S. sorry it took so long to get up. ;x

Chapter 3 - Sk8er Boi

"Where are we going?" Summer wanted to know as she followed Seth to his car.

He glanced over his shoulder. "You'll see."

She rolled her eyes. "Ooh, mysterious."

He grinned at her, opening her door. She stared at him for a second, then looked at the car.

"Having second thoughts?" he asked nervously.

"N-no," she replied. "Let's go." She lowered herself into the car, moving out of the way and watching him close the door for her. No one's ever opened the door for me like that before, she realized. It was actually kind of nice.

Seth jogged over to the driver's side and opened his own door, falling into the driver's seat. He flashed her a grin before starting the car and backing out of the driveway.

Summer ducked her head to hide her own smile, an unusual feeling of excitement and nervousness growing inside her. She took a deep breath, hoping he was taking her somewhere where she wouldn't see anyone she knew. She felt guilty at the thought, but she tried to convince herself that she just didn't feel like socializing at the moment.

"You're pretty quiet," Seth observed after about ten minutes of silence. He turned the radio down slightly.

"Is this a date?" Summer asked him.

Seth sucked in his breath. What was the right answer here? "Um...what do you think?"

"It depends on where we're going."

"I was going to, um, going to—"

"Yes?"

"Take us to get something to eat."

"Dinner. That's a date," she pointed out.

"And that's...bad?" He bit his lip, stealing a quick glance over at her. "It doesn't have to be a date."

"Oh."

Seth sighed. Was that disappointment? "Summer, I'm trying really hard to say what you want to hear, but I'm sort of having trouble."

"Don't."

"Don't what?"

"Don't try to impress me or humor me or whatever it is you're doing. Just say what you're thinking."

Seth's mouth curved in a smile. "I don't think that would be very appropriate, Summer."

"Ew. God, Cohen, way to ruin the moment."

"We were having a moment? Damn, I missed it."

"You are such a dork." Summer sighed, looking out the window.

He touched his hand to her knee for a brief second, and she slowly lifted her gaze. "I think this is just two friends going out to eat and enjoying each other's company."

She looked relieved. "Oh. So, like, where are we going?"

Seth smiled. She was going to love this. Ryan had suggested this place right on the outskirts of town where he was planning to take Marissa. It sounded very romantic, and Seth was sure that he and Summer would have a good time.

"We're going to Cuore d'amore. It's this new Italian place that opened up on the edge of—"

Summer gasped. "No. No. God, I knew it was you."

"No what? No Italian? And you knew what was me?"

"Don't play innocent, Cohen. I, like, totally figured it out. I guess subtlety isn't exactly your strong point."

"What are you talking about?" Seth demanded, glancing at her with a confused look on his face.

"Cuore d'amore, that's what I'm talking about. You just wrote about that place in the last letter you sent to me. And now you're, like, taking me there," she explained.

"I—what? You still think I'm sending you those letters? Summer, I thought we got past that."

"Don't even try to deny it. I know how you feel about me," she told him with narrowed eyes.

He scratched his head, pulling the car over onto the side of the road and stopping. He turned to her. "Yeah, well, it's not really a secret. But that doesn't mean I go around stalking you and writing you cheesy love letters. It's not my style," he told her.

She rolled her eyes. "Please. Like you have a style."

"Right. And thanks. My point was that I am not the one writing the letters, though."

"Prove it."

Now it was his turn to roll his eyes. "Alright, sure. Now how do you propose I do that?"

"How should I know?"

"Do you want to go somewhere else or what? What do you want to do now?" he asked, trying not to cry out in frustration.

"I don't...Ugh, maybe you should just take me back home."

"Wh—" Seth threw his hands up. "No, yeah, whatever you want. Fine."

He turned the key in the engine and started the car again, the tires squealing as he sped down the road. He made a U-turn and headed back in the direction of Summer's house.

* * * * *

Summer stalked upstairs and threw open her door. It hit the wall with a bang, and Marissa jumped from her position on the bed. Summer stared at her.

"What are you still doing here?" she asked, eyeing the stack of CDs in front of her friend.

Marissa smiled guiltily. "Busted. I was just looking for that CD you just bought. I was going to burn a copy of it, but I can't find it. So now I'm just looking through your other CDs. I told your stepmom what I was doing."

"Oh. It's over here." Summer walked over, found the CD, and handed it to her friend.

"Thanks." Marissa paused. "So..." she said slowly, "what happened?"

"Seth is, like, totally the one writing me those letters."

"He said that?" Marissa's eyes widened.

"Well, no, but he was taking me to the same place that it said in the letter. That's three times, Coop. It can't just be a coincidence."

Marissa scratched her head. "Summer—"

"I don't even know what I was thinking going with him to begin with. I mean, he's like—Cohen." She shuddered.

"Seth's not that bad. He can even be...cool sometimes."

"Cohen? Cool?" Summer snorted. "Those two words don't go together."

"Give him a chance, Summer."

"He got one tonight."

"Give him another one."

"I'm not going out with my stalker. That's too creepy."

"Sum, he's been crazy about you for years. Years. Why would he just now start sending you those letters?"

"I don't know." Summer thought about it. "Maybe it runs in the family. Maybe there's, like, some crazy gene that takes a while to kick in, and—"

"Are you even listening to yourself?"

Summer shook her head. "What about Cohen's dad? He's a little..."

"There is nothing crazy about the Cohen family," Marissa insisted, trying to hold back a laugh. "They're perfectly normal." Summer crossed her arms over her chest. "Well, normal enough," Marissa corrected.

Shaking her head again, Summer replied, "I don't know. I think I need to start hanging out with more people. You and I, Coop, we need to go to more of Holly's parties. We hang out with Cohen and Chino too much. It's almost predictable, and that's boring. I don't want to be bored. Screw Holly and Luke. We can go to the parties to meet new guys. Hot guys. Interesting guys. What do you say?"

Sometime in the middle of all that, Summer had begun to whine and look at Marissa with a puppy-dog face. Marissa fell back onto the bed, sighing. She closed her eyes.

"Alright...fine," she gave in. "We can go. She's having a party tomorrow night. But if I don't have a good time within the first half hour, I'm leaving," she warned.

"Great. It's a deal. You won't regret it, Coop." Summer beamed.

Marissa bit her lip. I regret it already, she thought. "Yeah. Well, I better get going. I promised Dad I wouldn't be gone too long. Dr. Kim called my house and told him that I wasn't doing so good in calculus, and now he wants me to study like all the time."

Summer nodded, standing up. "See you later."

Marissa held up the CD Summer was letting her borrow. "Thanks."

She left the room, closing the door behind her, and Summer collapsed onto the bed. She looked around her room, wishing more than anything that she have never received any of those anonymous letters.

"What is she doing now?"

Marissa switched the phone to her other ear, rolling her eyes. "Probably just sitting there, feeling guilty but trying not to admit it to herself. She's probably staring at the phone, fighting the urge to call him right now." She laughed, taking a drink of her bottle of water.

"Something drastic needs to happen," Ryan told her. "Seth knows how he feels about Summer, but we need to find a way to get her to realize that she likes him, too."

"She's stubborn," Marissa said with a sigh.

"He can be, too. You should see him right now. He doesn't even want to play video games. This must be serious."

Marissa grinned. "I'm coming over, I have a plan."

A smile spread across Ryan's face. "I'll be waiting."

They hung up, and Ryan walked over to Seth, who was staring blankly at the TV, which wasn't even turned on.

"What are you doing?" Ryan demanded.

"Watching the TV, what does it look like?" Seth replied, his eyes still on the big box in front of him.

"Most people actually turn it on first," Ryan teased.

Seth blinked. "Hey, who turned it off?" His looked at Ryan in confusion.

"Don't look at me."

Sandy Cohen, Seth's father, poked his head into the room. "I turned it off. You weren't even watching it, anyway. You didn't even blink when I turned it off. It was wasting electricity."

"Yeah, 'cause we can hardly afford it as it is."

"No need to be wasting money, no matter how much we have," Sandy pointed out. He disappeared back into the kitchen.

Seth turned to Ryan. "Who was that on the phone?"

"Marissa," Ryan responded without hesitation. "She's—" The doorbell rang. "Here."

He went over to the front door, opening it. Marissa walked in, a big smile on her face. She greeted Ryan and walked into the living room and over to Seth.

"Hey, Seth."

"Marissa. Long time no see. It's been, what, fourteen hours? Fifteen?"

"I'm not counting, Seth."

He shrugged moodily. "Sorry, I think I'm just going to go to bed. I'm not in a very good mood and I don't want to, well, bring you guys down. That cool?" He glanced from Ryan to Marissa.

"No, no. Don't go to bed. I came over to see you."

"To see me?" Seth echoed. "What for?"

"To, uh..."

"You want to talk about her, don't you?"

Marissa smiled innocently, and Seth groaned.

"Alright, out with it."

"She is freaking out right now," Marissa confided. "She really thinks it's you writing the letters."

"But I'm not."

"How do you explain the weird coincidences?"

"Simply as labeling them coincidences," he returned, frowning.

Marissa and Ryan exchanged a glance, and Seth gritted his teeth.

"You guys think I'm writing them, too!" he accused.

"Well, no—"

"Just because I like her doesn't mean I am going to go all psycho and stalk her. Now, if you don't mind, I'm going to go to b—"

"Okay, okay, forget about the letters," Marissa told him. "Maybe you should just think more about the guy that's writing them. You could learn something from him."

"I could learn something from the guy that's stalking Summer? What, how to get her to get a restraining order from me?"

"No. You need to take action. You can't just sit around forever and wait for her to come to you," Ryan explained.

"I have not...Okay, yeah, I guess I have just kind of sat there until now. But tonight—we were actually going out, until she freaked out and told me to take her home. Maybe I should finally take the hint and—"

"No!"

"No," Marissa echoed. "She's just getting creeped out by the letters. Just try one more time."

Seth started to shake his head. "I don't see the—"

"Sleep on it."

"Fine. Yeah. I'll sleep on it," Seth promised. "Can I go to sleep now?"

"Sure, go right ahead."

Seth eyed them both before turning around and hurrying up to his room.

Marissa and Ryan looked at each other, grinning.

-

He was a skater boy

She said 'see ya later boy'

He wasn't good enough for her

She had a pretty face

But her head was up in space

She needed to come back down to earth.

-

A/N: This chapter was kind of boring, no?? Sorry about that. I don't know where this story is going, but maybe if I plan it out before just writing it, I might be able to do a better job. Don't give up just yet. ;D Feedback helps [hint hint]. LOL. ;P Oh…and I missed last week's episode of theOC. I'm so mad at myself. Did anyone record it?? If you can make me a copy, I'll pay for the tape and for shipping. But if you review, PLEASE--no spoilers from that episode. ;/ Please, please. ;) lol. I hate spoilers, even though to you they aren't spoilers, hehe. But please help me out--if you can make me a tape, e-mail me @ SethNSummerShipper@hotmail.com. Thanks so much.